Nigeria Content Online

The federal government said it has set
up 80 Rural Information Technology Centres (RITCs) across the six
geo-political zones of the country and has deployed the services of a
private Information Technology (IT) firm to manage them.

Wahab Jimoh, director of information
and communications technology at the Ministry of Science and
Technology, made the announcement at an event launching the
government’s partnership at Mambilla Barracks in Abuja on Wednesday.

Mr. Jimoh, who represented the
minister, Mohammed Abubakar, disclosed that the government, through the
National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), had signed
a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a local IT firm, ChamAccess,
to outsource management of the centres to them.

Mr. Jimoh implored the management of
ChamsAccess to diligently implement the terms of its partnership so
that the model could become a framework for managing other RITCs across
the country.

Two-way partnership

Cleopas Angaye, the director general of
NITDA, said the company would be required to provide facilities and
capabilities to effectively manage six mobile internet units and 80
RITCs for the next four years.

“They are also to advise NITDA on the
business development capabilities of subsequent beneficiaries, which
may still be handed over to them based on [their] management of the
sites that are being handed over to them today,” said Mr. Angaye.

He noted that the scheme was an attempt at providing all Nigerians with access, especially in rural areas, to ICT facilities.